1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a removable pan for use with a cooking grill. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a removable pan for use with a cooking grill that converts a grill into a meat smoker.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Meat smokers are well-known and commercially available. However, meat smokers can be expensive to purchase, they can require a fair amount of storage space, and they are a specialized food preparation tool that the average consumer would likely not purchase.
Smoking meats for extended periods of time, such as for three hours or more, has grown in popularity. Smoking meats requires a significantly extended cooking time, and it also requires lower cooking temperatures in the range of 250° F. or less. An ordinary backyard grill—whether charcoal or gas—is not well-suited for use as a smoker. The typical backyard grill is designed to cook meat in 5-25 minutes (depending upon the type and cut of the meat) at temperatures that can approach 500° F. Even more so, a typical backyard grill applies direct heat to the meat, which is detrimental to smoking meat for long periods of time. Nonetheless, most entry-level meat smokers use their ordinary backyard grill for smoking meat because they have no other option, and they are not prepared to purchase a complete meat smoker before even smoking meat for the first time. Therefore, many entry-level meat smokers use a kettle-style charcoal grill, and they may use only a small number of briquettes in order to keep the temperature down. But this approach requires constant monitoring over many hours, and it still can expose the meat to direct heat.
Thus, there remains a need to quickly, easily, and economically adapt an ordinary grill into one that is much better suited for smoking meat.
The present invention, as is detailed hereinbelow, seeks to fill this need by providing a removable pan, or heat diffuser, for use with a kettle grill that is placed between the meat and the heat source.